Territory’s ‘real-life Hannibal Lecter’ now an ageing gardener who wants to change his ways
ANDY Albury, who once put a garden hoe through the head of a fellow inmate and broke the skull of another with a cricket bat, says he is now a changed man.
Crime and Court
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ONE of the NT’s most notorious murderers – once dubbed Australia’s Hannibal Lecter – is now an ageing gardener with a thriving veggie patch inside the Alice Springs prison.
Andy Albury has been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole since he was convicted of the brutal murder of Gloria Pindan on Mitchell St in 1983.
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Upon his arrest, Albury admitted to killing and mutilating his victim and told police: “It doesn’t worry me what I kill – they’re all blood and guts inside.”
“I think I’ll do it again,” he said. “I get enjoyment out of it, don’t know why.”
During his time in custody Albury has put a garden hoe through the head of a fellow inmate and broken the skull of another with a cricket bat and once vowed to keep “playing up” unless he was moved from Darwin back to Alice Springs.
But in a hearing into his prison conditions in the Supreme Court on Friday, Albury, now in his mid-50s, told Justice Stephen Southwood he was a changed man.
“I’m starting to get really old and I’m slowing down a lot,” he said.
Before the hearing began, Albury told his lawyer Suzan Cox he had been growing tomatoes and watermelons in the prison garden and had only had two “incidents” inside since January.
“I don’t plan on any more incidents,” he said.
Ms Cox told Justice Southwood Albury had been tending his garden for about a month.
“He’s now going out there every day and he’s got vegetables growing and fruit as well,” she said.
“It’s been a wonderful change for him and we’ve worked on it all year to get it to happen and it’s finally happened just before this review so we hope that things will continue in that vein.”
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In adjourning the matter for further review this time next year, Justice Southwood said the improvements in Albury’s outlook on life were “very good to see”.
“Your behaviour and achievements over this last period have been very good indeed and I urge you to keep it up,” he said.
Albury was automatically granted a 20-year non-parole period with all other Territory lifers in 2001 but the Director of Public Prosecutions successfully appealed to ensure he will die behind bars.
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